Recent content by MattyAB

Whenever I call "hands down" or "hands off" as a preventative measure, one player almost always looks back and claims they weren't fouling, "guilty conscious?" "how do you know I was talking to you?". Always makes me smile!

Ref "in June 1914 Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, an act that many believe led to the first world war" player "huh" Ref "sorry, i thought we were talking about history" true story!

No matter what level you're at and how good the game is, you will at some point find yourself in the way, or will be hit by the ball. If I find myself caught up in play without an easy escape route, I will normally shout "I'm staying still" that allows the payers chance to move round you...

Ref's secretaries have a hard job (wouldn't do it myself), and they will be frustrated when they are "let down" last minute, but I would always think the best in this type of scenario and assume they are frustrated with the situation rather than you (the OP). Definitely their responsibility to...

Simple rule for me when communicating with players, is never to say anything, to use a tone of voice, or a gesture, that would have me considering the stepped approach to prevent, or the actual sanction for Dissent. Stick to this and you can't find yourself in a position were your behaviour...

If there's no need to assert authority on the game, you can certainly try and be a little more low key with vocal censure and adopt a quieter whistle; but if an Observer has picked you up on this and suggested being more vocal, maybe you could consider adding your voice for positive rather than...

In terms of remembering an offender, trying to remember a number or distinguishing feature has been covered; the other thing I try and do is ask my NAR's in the pre-match to help with this and to keep an eye on the offender if I do play an advantage. But if you do lose the player (and I guess...

First bit of advice is to practice making decisions on the run, so maybe try this on youth or lower division games where you (possibly) have a little more time and leeway to put development areas and new techniques in to practice, you could even go as far as offering to act as CAR on a game if...

100% not a pass back from shin / knee thigh etc. Apologies if not clear. In my opinion (and sounds like in yours), the more proactive you can be the better, that way you are seen as aware of what's happening in the game, decisions don't come as a surprise to anyone on the park, which makes...

Downstairs then Upstairs is the method I use when on the line, and ask my assistants to adopt when I'm in the middle. The ball goes out of play and I make the mental decision which way I'm awarding the throw, at that point I either move the flag slightly away from my body to the left (for...

Have a look at - https://www.refchat.co.uk/threads/advantage-woe.9709/ I think you'll find this interesting / relevant.

Control the controllable. You may be poorly positioned and miss an offence whilst learning your trade, you may make an error in law for a "weird or unusual" occurrence, you may get a throw in the wrong way after it pinballs off two players; but you can certainly make sure that all players have...

I'm not sure if I can back this up in law (and can't be bothered to research during my lunch break!), but I'm pretty certain that "what football expects" is that penal offences are counted towards persistent infringement, and technical offences (offside, foul throw, rolling ball, touching the...

The approach I take with this has worked well over the years for me and not caused any problems for me (famous last words) for an clear and obvious back pass where no ambiguity exists, I won't interfere, and if the @keeper handles the ball there will be zero surprise when the whistle goes...

One key thing that will almost certainly be different is the length of each half. I've not done youth football at that age group for a number of years, but probably 30 minute halves. As Twinsuniax said, check the league handbook and there will certainly be details of length of match for each age...